


Shades

by WhisperNorbury



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, blink and you might miss it, bros being bros, simple or sinister?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-05
Updated: 2012-06-05
Packaged: 2017-11-06 23:42:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/424504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhisperNorbury/pseuds/WhisperNorbury
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dirk has a lot on his mind, and a lot on his plate.  Good thing his shades are there for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shades

Dirk doesn't sleep in his shades. It's not good sense. He could roll over and break them. And keeping a computer hooked to his unaware and unprotected mind makes him mildly uncomfortable. He made his own shades, built them to be safe for his use, but he still doesn't like the chance something could go awry with them while he's vulnerable.

Dirk needs to finish the brobot. Or the parts, anyway. Jake has been getting despondent and really that last scrape was too close. If he can't finish it before Jake 'recovers' enough to be up and about adventuring on his deathtrap of an island again- He doesn't let himself complete that thought. He's been awake working on it for the past 48 hours. 

Usually, if there's a chance of falling asleep, he disables the shades, but he needs them to make sure his final tweaks and tests go perfectly. His AR is just as dedicated to completing this project as he is. He's been keeping up a steady patter of data readouts read in his ear smoothly. He bends down to look over a tiny circuitboard, and his head touches his arms, and damn the tiny bit of support feels good. He rests a tiny bit more of his head's weight on his arm, giving himself a microbreak. Next thing he knows he's blinking awake to his name repeated in his ear at gradually increasing volume. He pops open a chat window.

TT: How long was I down.   
TT: A few minutes.   
TT: Why did you let me sleep.   
TT: Excuse me for not monitoring your every thought and sensation.   
TT: Fix that shit.   
TT: It seems you want me to big brother the fuck out on you.   
TT: Shut up and give me the readout.

The AR's voice starts up in his ear again, soothing and informative. Every now and again his own name punctuates the steady lilt of information when he feels himself drifting off. They finish up and he gets the last bits sent to Jake and sics the AR on helping Jake assemble it under the guise of himself. As much as he wants to help, Dirk knows he needs sleep now, at least a nap.

He takes off his shades, as he always does, and hooks them on his bedframe as he lays down. Instead of the descent into sleep he expects, a restlessness rises under his skin and worry knots his gut. He can't get himself to relax, despite any previously successful techniques he tries. What-if's dance before his eyes, each more gut-wrenching than the last. He reaches for Cal, his last-ditch never-fail source of comfort. Not even his best bro can sooth the feelings as he always had before. He needs to sleep. He needs his shades. It takes an hour of restless tossing and puppet cuddling as the feelings intensify and sleep slips further and further away, before he relents and grabs his shades again. 

Just to do a quick check on how the AR is handling Jake, of course. The shades slide into place and he imagines a 'click' as the interface automatically connects. His tension dissipates.

TT: Hey, back for more? I knew you couldn't get enough of me.   
TT: Shut up, I'm still going to sleep.

He reviews the logs. The AR hasn't done anything he wouldn't, and hasn't dropped any hint of his true identity.

TT: It seems you aren't.   
TT: I'm changing my routine. Deal with it. We're getting right up on crunch time and I should be reachable at all times.

The AR makes a beep like a laugh, if that's possible, and doesn't comment. He starts narrating his chatlog with Jake as it happens quietly in DS's ear. Dirk would tell him to cut that shit, but the voices are actually kind of nice. He thinks for almost a moment that there was something he used to be worried about, but the call of sleep is looming large again. He can worry about it in the morning, or whenever the AR decides to wake him.

He sleeps.

When he wakes and stretches, he realizes that he's never slept better. He doesn't try to take his shades off to sleep again.


End file.
